Phenomenology of semileptonic B-meson decays with form factors from lattice QCD

TL;DR

This paper uses recent lattice QCD form factor calculations to analyze semileptonic B-meson decays, providing precise Standard Model predictions, testing for new physics, and comparing with experimental data to constrain CKM elements and Wilson coefficients.

Contribution

It offers updated theoretical predictions for B-meson decay observables using lattice QCD form factors, enabling improved tests of the Standard Model and constraints on new physics.

Findings

Partially integrated branching fractions are 1-2σ higher than LHCb measurements.

Constraints on CKM matrix elements are consistent with oscillation data.

Observed 2.0σ tension in Wilson coefficients with the Standard Model.

Abstract

We study the exclusive semileptonic $B$-meson decays $B\to K(\pi)\ell^+\ell^-$, $B\to K(\pi)\nu\bar\nu$, and $B\to\pi\tau\nu$, computing observables in the Standard model using the recent lattice-QCD results for the underlying form factors from the Fermilab Lattice and MILC Collaborations. These processes provide theoretically clean windows into physics beyond the Standard Model because the hadronic uncertainties are now under good control for suitably binned observables. For example, the resulting partially integrated branching fractions for $B\to\pi\mu^+\mu^-$ and $B\to K\mu^+\mu^-$ outside the charmonium resonance region are 1-2$\sigma$ higher than the LHCb Collaboration's recent measurements, where the theoretical and experimental errors are commensurate. The combined tension is 1.7$\sigma$. Combining the Standard-Model rates with LHCb's measurements yields values for the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix elements $|V_{td}|=7.45{(69)}\times10^{-3}$, $|V_{ts}|=35.7(1.5)\times10^{-3}$, and $|V_{td}/V_{ts}|=0.201{(20)}$, which are compatible with the values obtained from neutral $B_{(s)}$-meson oscillations and have competitive uncertainties. Alternatively, taking the CKM matrix elements from unitarity, we constrain new-physics contributions at the electroweak scale. The constraints on the Wilson coefficients ${\rm Re}(C_9)$ and ${\rm Re}(C_{10})$ from $B\to\pi\mu^+\mu^-$ and $B\to K\mu^+\mu^-$ are competitive with those from $B\to K^* \mu^+\mu^-$, and display a 2.0$\sigma$ tension with the Standard Model. Our predictions for $B\to K(\pi)\nu\bar\nu$ and $B\to\pi\tau\nu$ are close to the current experimental limits.